South Asian Languages Fight for a Place in London's Classrooms

For London's South Asian diaspora, the ability to pass on mother-tongue languages to the next generation is a matter of cultural survival — and community advocates are now taking that fight all the way to Westminster.

📜 Lobbying Westminster for South Asian Languages

The Punjabi Bhasha Chetna Board UK has submitted a formal memorandum to the Minister of State for Schools and the Secretary of State for Education, calling for ten South Asian languages to be included in the national school curriculum. The request covers Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Nepalese, Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu and Marathi. A special event to mark the occasion was held under the aegis of the Indian High Commission in London, coinciding with International Mother Language Day, and was attended by the Indian and Bangladeshi High Commissioners alongside community leaders. Board director Harmeet Singh Bhakna explained that the campaign began as a push for Punjabi alone, but broadened to ten languages after equality legislation made a single-language request untenable. The goal is for these languages to receive the same optional-subject status as French in UK schools. [2]

🏫 Desi Community Unites Behind Curriculum Push

Members of the South Asian diaspora across the UK have rallied behind the call to introduce ten Indian languages into the school curriculum, reflecting growing recognition of the community's demographic and cultural footprint. The campaign draws attention to the fact that despite large numbers of Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and other South Asian language speakers living in Britain, these languages remain absent from mainstream schooling. Community voices stress that formal recognition in the curriculum would help younger generations maintain connections to their heritage while also gaining academically valued language qualifications. The push represents a collective effort by Desi organisations to translate community strength into tangible educational policy change. [3]

Sources: [2] The Indian Express · [3] The Times of India